London fought off the cold. Then the snow czar stepped in

London has done well in the big freeze. My roads were gritted and salted, and in good time. The buses ran where they could. Trains and Tubes worked valiantly and there were few cases of "millions trapped by wrong snow on line". The public services deserve a thank you, as does the Kensington shop that offered me a glass of mulled wine on the pavement.

So what does the Government do? It surpasses parody. Having failed to predict the wet summer, it contrived not to predict the cold winter. Its Meteorological Office, now owned by the global warmers, promised only a one in seven chance of this winter being colder than average. It has become the coldest in 30 years. One in seven should be the odds against the Met Office boss, John Hirst, getting another 25 per cent pay and bonus rise from Alistair Darling, as he did last year. Many councils which are strapped for cash are understandably reducing their purchase of salt and grit.

After two weeks of being proved wrong, on Friday the Government went berserk. The transport minister, Lord Adonis, made a series of bizarre pronouncements making himself czar of the country's grit and salt, de facto nationalising supply. He said he was "working with the three principal salt suppliers to maximise production". This must be the first time since Stalin that a socialist has tried to run a salt mine.

Adonis said the Government "has taken the lead", presumably over everyone else. It was setting up something called a "salt cell" in the bowels of Whitehall. He was instructing local councils and the London Mayor to "consider what prioritisation is appropriate for their networks, reflecting local needs, strategic routes and key public services", as if that thought had never occurred to them. To this end he ordered a blanket 25 per cent cut in salt-spreading to conserve supplies, irrespective of whether councils had enough salt or not.

I can hear councils across the land crying like Mao's Red Guards: "Thank you, your lordship, thank you for your brilliant suggestions and much-needed leadership." This sort of initiative-itis is absurd. Why should councils that have prudently conserved supplies and formed their own priorities not be allowed to make decisions on salting? Why should they have to ring a government hotline to do their jobs, one that was reportedly closed all weekend? Why should some be penalised for their efficiency, to reward others that had not been so careful? Gordon Brown said last week that "those areas that need salt should not be denied it". Why not, if they failed to take precautions?

I expect the Mayor and the boroughs, not Mr Brown, to keep London's roads open at present. Those that have done well, in spite of government weather forecasts, are entitled to take credit for it, rather than have their citizens punished by Lord Adonis. They should answer for their decisions to their own electors rather than have Brown and Adonis boasting to theirs.

In the event, one London council, Harrow, was denied supplies last week and had to close half its schools. Westminster has warned that salt rationing meant it was "unable to continue the extensive gritting which residents, businesses and visitors are used to." The message presumably was, sue Adonis.

This in turn raised the familiar bind over health and safety. In last February's freeze, schools were warned to close rather than risk children slipping on ice. Better play safe, they were told, and leave children to play dangerously on the streets and in the parks, where no one could be sued.

Since then we have been told to beware of clearing streets or pavements outside homes or businesses. Advice on the Safety & Health Practitioner website states: "It is probably worth stopping at the boundaries of the property under your control lest members of the public, assuming that the area is still clear of ice and thus safe to walk on, slip and injure themselves". In other words, they might sue. *

The implication is that the public does best to follow the reported maxim of John McQuater of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers: "If you do nothing, you cannot be liable. If you do something, you could be liable to a legal action." His members will, of course, make sure you are. Small wonder a man in Cambridgeshire, who offered to grit his own street if the council sent him the stuff, was warned to get full accident insurance before daring to make any such move.

The minister responsible for the health and safety industry, Yvette Cooper, has yet to offer reassurance. She was defied by Westminster council, which pleaded with residents to "break up any compacted ice and snow which may be making an area hazardous". Her Lords colleague, Lord Davies, confirmed that anyone doing this would leave themselves personally responsible for the resulting accidents. We need look no further to explain the collapse of community spirit in modern Britain.

There is one bit of good news. The Met Office last summer faced a public outcry after its forecast of "a barbecue summer". It duly changed its mind and predicted a wet, miserable autumn. The autumn was then blazing and glorious. Now the same forecasters of a mild winter have changed to predicting two more weeks of vicious ice and snow.